One of our best players right now is actually a real bona fide number 6 in Adams. Play him at the 6, have him play his usual game and call it system 2.0, or call him the Berhalt Regista Hybrid Destroyer role or whatever nerd term fits and give all the credit to jay's brother if we must. This current farce needs to end though, no more of this stupid Pirlo talk. We don't have a player of that mold good enough to dictate we build everything around them and we never will.
Maybe- if so - I'm cool with that. My bet though is he plays more like Kante for the US. In possession, the US played their usual 3223 with a box midfield. Two attacking, creative players in the halfspace and two players in the central space to deliver passes, win the ball, roam and just boss the midfield. I tend to expect Adams and Mckennie to be there. (if Mckennie's decision making can get a bit better). Then put a "controller", regista, DLP, possession guy behind them like Yueill who stays pretty locked in front of the back 2. Then Adams and Mckennie can really use their range and ball winning and dynamic athleticism to impact the game. It also allows the US to push both full backs high against most teams like the did CR. I just doubt they want to lock Adams in front of the back 2 and have him be that connecter and possession oriented player. He doesn't play it for his club and it limits the impact of his athleticism and dynamicism. But who knows... we first need to get a chance to have these guys on the field together.
No. Get rid of the stupid Regista role which requires players we don't have and never will have and is not, never has been and never will be, particularly effective for us. Let Adams play the 6 as a normal 6 in front of the back four and distribute the way he normally does, which is vastly superior to long lofted switches from inferior players and instead of the useless regista, play a better, more creative player higher up the pitch.
I think it’s an extremely optimistic take that Berhalter’s system was built around adams and not the regista. We’ve been discussing this topic For over a year and I don’t think it anywhere close to true that it was designed for adams.
absolutely agree on moving away from a "regista". the "best case" scenario with a regista- mckennie and adams ahead of yueill, doing the running, pressing, defending while yueill directs traffaic and distributes. ignoring the rest of the team that makes plenty of sense. the prohibitive con though: lessens both mckennie and adams' involvement offensively, while yueill (who im generally impressed/comfortable with- in a vacuum) isnt remotely at a level you build around. i think hes very similar/comparable to beckerman in terms of passing/distribution. more range and advances the attack more, to a small degree- but hes a very safe, steady distributor. hes not, in any way, a decisive, unlocking a defense passer. and most importantly- that system doesnt give any direct cover to the back 4 (which i believe we absolutely need). the best case without the regista (which i fully support) is, as you say, adams as a 6, covering the backline and wreaking havoc. a HUGE pro for this is that allows for genuinely attacking outside backs. ahead of him you could go any of three directions: mckennie/pomykal for the most disruptive, defensive central midfield, mckennie/yuill for a fairly balanced, distributing midfield (with mckennie freed to be more offensive) and finally mckennie/pulisic ahead of adams. personally i like the idea of adams behind mckennie and pomykal. i think its clearly the most secure defensively, all three are somewhere between capable of-to-downright suited for swarming, winning balls, pressing and solid distribution to our wing players- which is our only real threat (pulisic, morris, weah, reyna, llanez, arriola, boyd, possibly ferreira).both mckennie and pomykal are also plus attacking players from deep positions. bottom line: adams is THE player, imo, we build around. we have then have flexibility and options for the other two cms from defensive to offensive (who i havent even named yet in morales, lletget, parks, aaronson, ledesma etc). it gives us a world of options- a regista limits us in almost any scenario, even if you feel yueill (or someone else) is at a level to justify that setup. it trickles down, it necessitates at least one outside back stay home, it takes away the option for a more attacking option in the central mid. of course you can ignore those knock on effects to the detriment of the team defense, which i think is what we are doing currently. the problem is (along with the reason even i cant put this on berhalter...yet) is theres no plan b. adams is indispensible, it doesnt work without him- and obviously we havent had him. i think morales is the best current option to back adams up as a true 6 (not that he is, just that hes most capable of that, for me)- but if we had spent the year playing that system keeping that spot warm for adams id have complained just as much as i did spending the last year built around bradley/trapp/yueill. so in theory i agree with the idea that we havent been able to play an "ideal" system almost entirely based on adams being out. but the reality is berhalter has been plainly clear that adams as a 6 was never his plan. but yes, i fully agree. going to an actual 6 with adams and scrapping the "regista" makes us a far better team instantly. if only there were as simple a fix for lb and st...
No one else can play like Pirlo from any nation. He was one of those one of a kind players. There are players that are somewhat similar but like Zidane you build around them because they are incredible but no one else can do what they do.
My point exactly, we do not and never have had anyone suited to the DLP role worth building around, so lets stop it. More to the point the best #6 we have now and probably ever have had, is an entirely different kind of player, so why are we even discussing a system that caters to a Bradley/Yueill type, instead of Adams? Contrary to the OP's assertion that I just want to kill the conversation, I very much want to have this conversation, I just disagree with confining it to the original postulate that the DLP/Pirlo/Regista role are the only acceptable parameters of the conversation.
Claudio Reyna (I love having to use both names to differentiate USMNT players!) would have been pretty good as a regista.
A significant problem with the single-pivot 433 is that CB and GK are the weakest positions in the team. Further, defining the single-pivot as some sort of deep-lying playmaker makes the problem worse, as the CBs are then placed under even more pressure. Also, deep-lying playmakers are not 'locked in' in front of the backline. They are playmakers, after all. They play off of the CMs and CBs. They interchange with the CMs and sometimes the CBs. It's a fluid position. And CMs would not be 'roaming' as that would negate the effectiveness and defensive cover of the dlp. A dm can be 'locked in' in front of the backline. That's the way Beckerman was used in the match against. But he was there to shield to backline, rather than to provide creativity in the attack.
Posters have mentioned the lake Placid miracle on ice while advocating for an attractive attacking system. Here’s a nice article: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id...efied-numbers-beat-soviet-union-1980-olympics The thing that has stuck in my mind all these years is the brilliance of Herb and his master plan," said Craig Patrick, Team USA's assistant coach in 1980 and a Hockey Hall of Famer. Color analyst Ken Dryden described the Soviets' counterattack like a fast break in basketball. They thrived on odd-man break situations. But the U.S. basically cut that off by defending with numbers. There always seemed to be three or four players back, which was a credit to the U.S. speed and discipline. Despite the possession being so tilted, the U.S. defensive strategy was incredibly disruptive to the way the Soviets were used to playing. Brooks trusted his players, even if they were a bit younger. The Americans were the best-conditioned team in any game they played and used their depth to their advantage. The middle of the American zone was clogged up with five bodies in white jerseys just about every time the Big Red Machine entered the zone. The U.S. would also dump pucks out to the neutral zone every chance they got, forcing the USSR to regroup and try again. It was basically a prevent defense, and it was torture to the highly skilled Soviets. Nobody thinks the miracle on ice team was defeatist....